St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-05

the limits of one road overlapping and
conflicting with other roads in the most
bewildering manner, so that the settler
seeking home could scarcely find de-
sirable location that was not claimed by
some enc, or perhaps two or three, of
the many roads to which grants of land
had been made by congress.
Nor was this all. Though the desired
tract might not be apparently covered
by railroad location, the settler would
hardly select it before agents of the cor
poratiOnS would set up a claim to it, or
TO the right to occupy and denude 1t I'M
privileges conferred by the granting
act Thus the settler, ignorant of his
legal rights and with no one to advise
him with respect to either the law or
the facts, would. for the sake of peace
and home, readily consent to purchase
from tie company. In this way these
corporations, in addition to the lands
granted to them, have claimed. sold and
received the price of great deal of land
to which they had neither legal nor
moral right, nor the shadow of either.
The confusion, hardship. and imposi-
tons practiced upon the settlers were
greatly increased by the bold schemes
of the corporate agents where with
drawalS were made of lands to which
the legal title of the companies had not
attached, and which afterwards re-
manned in the same condition for years
through the failure of congress to make
the necessary appropriations for the
surveys.
When. however, through partial sur
veys or adjustments of grants, lands
thus sold by company were found to
be outside of the grants and determined
by the department to be public lands,
the purchaser from the company found
himself in the unfortunate predicament
of having lost both his land and his
money. Generally without the means
to enter into costly litigation with a
powerful corporation, the deprivation
of his home, the expenditure and waste
of his years. his energy and strength,
in redeeming that home from its wild
condition, rendered his mere technical
right of action against the company but
little more than mockery.
Years have elapsed since many of the
grants have been made and other years
since the Withdrawals. Some of the
companies have constructed the entire
line of their roads, others fragmentary
portions only, and others, again, none
at all: but the Withdrawals of the lands
were no less effective as barrier against
the settlers in the one case than i'll the
other. 1t mattered not what might be
his equities acquired by years of toll
upon what he believed to be part of
the national domain. 1t was declared
by the highest judicial tribunal, as eX-
pounded by the highest law officers of
the executive, that withdrawal once
made by competent authority was legal
and effective to exclude all from intru-
sion within its limits.
One such case, where hardship and
Injustice were about to be inflicted I'M
der the law, came under your obSerya-
ton. Guilford Miller settled upon
lands afterwards selected and claimed
by the Northern Pacific Railroad COM
pany to be within the withdrawal for
indemnity purposes. Some doubt arts
ing as to the legality of that withdrawal,
the case was referred by this depart
ment to the attorney general for his
opinion on the question of law. That
officer held that the withdrawal was
legal, and that during its existence Mil
Ter could acquire no right or title to
the tract claimed by him. and on which
he lived. Whilst recognizing the cor
rectness of the law, you saw the III
j
vidual settler was affected; and that
hundreds of others were similarly stu
ated who might and would be affected:
and you directed that such grants should
be so administered by this department
as, if possible, to protect these settlers
from such injustice, stating your belief
that this can be done under the pro-
vision which declares that these Selec-
tons shall be made under the direction
of the secretary of the interior"
After years of waiting congress had
failed to empower the department to
make the necessary surveys whereby
some of the grants might be adjusted,
and no immediate prospect of such sur
veys were in sight. But a law was
passed March 8. 1887 ga Statutes. 556l,
the secretary of the interior
was directed to Immediately adjust
each of the railroad land grants made
by congress to aid in the construction of
railroads" With an earnest desire to
obey the mandate of congress, to give to
the corporations their every right under
the laws, and at the same time follow
the directions given by you to see that
ample protection should be extended to
settlers and those seeking to make set
Element on the public lands "a matter
which had been so long and so ut
terly OvershadOwedl, L entered upon
most careful consideration of the whole
subject of the history and law relating
to land grants, and concluded that if the
der artment was clothed with authority
to make indemnity Withdrawals, as had
been done in so many instances. the ex-
eFcise of that authority was a matter en-
tirely within sound discretion, and not
a matter of legal obligation in any re-
Spect: that the same sound discretion
which, in the interest of the companies,
justified said Withdrawals, now de-
peremptOrily in the public in
tereSt speedy revocation of the same;
and that the most effective way of eX-
pediting an adjustment of the land
grants, and doing exact justice to the
guarding and promoting the
interests of the settlers also, was to per-
nit the public to enter into competition
with the companies in the selection of
lands heretofore withdrawn for indem-
nifty purposes.
Accordingly, on May %, 1887, with
your approval. rules were laid upon the
different companies for whose benefit
had been made to show
cause by day certain why said with
drawalS should not be revoked. Some
Oh the companies 1alled 10 snow cause;
others filed answers asserting to the
revocation. as they had received salts
faction of the grant either in full or as
far as possible: others assentSd on con-
dti0n that lands covered by selections
already made should be excepted from
the order of revocation, and other COM
panieS objected to the Older of revOca-
ton as illegal and a violation of char
tered rights. Briefs were filed
and oral arguments accorded TO
the counsel of such companies as
desired to be heard, all of which were
fully and carefully considered, as was
due to the Importance of the questions
and the magnitude of the interests in
volved; and OH Aug. Is, 1887. my views
were fully expressed in decision rem
dered in the case of the Atlantic &
Pacific Railroad company, which by an
Swer and argument raised nearly all the
that were presented in part
only bI- a punnhnr of 0thnr aOmnanipS